Republicans offer an alternative state budget that calls for freezing wages for state workers so other service

HARTFORD — Republican legislators issued a budget plan Friday that would restore money for social services, senior citizens and probate courts and help pay for that by enacting a one-year wage freeze for all state employees, reducing overtime payments by $220 million over two years and eliminating the recent salary increases for the governor's staff.

The plan, characterized as an alternative to Gov. Dannel P. Malloy's budget, also called for an additional $253 million in labor savings per year that Republicans and the legislature's nonpartisan fiscal office said the state has failed to reach in a previous deal with Malloy.

That savings could be attained by extending a wage freeze beyond the initial year, forcing state employees to pay higher co-payments for prescription drugs and eliminating the so-called "longevity payments" that veteran employees currently receive.

Senate Republican leader Len Fasano of North Haven said Republicans and Democrats need to work together to balance the two-year, $40 billion budget instead of hurling insults.

"We shouldn't be throwing hand grenades at each other on this issue," Fasano said. "It makes good headlines, but it doesn't do anything to move the state forward. ... We're not Washington. We've worked together all the time on bills. This is no different."

But union leaders, Democrats and the governor did not endorse the calls for more contributions from state employees.

"Without our most recent changes in wages, pension and health care, Connecticut's budget deficit would be far worse,'' said Sal Luciano, executive director of AFSCME, Council 4. "Connecticut's working families need a commitment to job creation and an investment in schools, health care, roads, bridges and communities.

"Instead of blaming dedicated public servants, it's time to ask Connecticut's largest corporations and wealthiest citizens, like Tom Foley, to help prevent devastating cuts by making a fair contribution to the state budget."

The Republicans offered the plan before the Democrat-controlled budget-writing committee is scheduled to issue its budget recommendations Monday.

The proposal rejects many of Malloy's fiscal plans, reversing cuts to the resident state trooper program for rural towns and the nine regional fire training schools around the state.

It also restores funding for the Governor's Horse Guard and the funeral Honor Guard for veterans. The plan restores $18.7 million for mental health and substance-abuse programs, $15 million to reduce the waiting list for the intellectually disabled who are seeking spots in group homes, and millions more to support probate courts statewide.

Republicans also rejected Malloy's proposed cuts for state parks, the Kensington fish hatchery in Berlin, libraries, the Connecticut Humanities Council and Mystic Aquarium.

The 43-page alternative budget calls for eliminating the corporate tax surcharge in the 2017 fiscal year and phasing out the state income tax on pensions for couples earning less than $100,000 per year. It also favors eliminating the $250 business entity tax that is paid every two years and dropping the 6.35 percent sales tax on clothing and shoes under $50 as of June 1, 2016.

The Republican plan says there would be no wage increases in 2016 for state managers, along with cuts in overtime and consolidation of permanent state commissions, including the Permanent Commission on the Status of Women. The commission consolidation has been offered multiple times in the past and rejected.

Since Democrats control both chambers of the legislature and the governor's office, the Republican plan is not expected to pass. But Democrats say that some elements of the Republican plan may end up in the overall package.

The governor's communications director, Mark Bergman, issued a statement that thanked Republicans for their efforts but dismissed their proposals.

"Unfortunately, instead of making the difficult decisions to put Connecticut on a strong and brighter path, the Republicans punted on the tough calls, putting forward a budget that is based on hundreds of millions of dollars in unrealistic assumptions,'' Bergman said.

"Republicans offer Connecticut a false choice —- the only way that this budget could be implemented would be to either illegally break state contracts or lay off thousands of hard-working [state employees], stopping our economic recovery dead in its tracks. It's just not serious."

But House Republican leader Themis Klarides of Derby said that her party has been wrongly blamed for budget cuts.

"It's always the bad Republicans who don't like the unions and the bad Republicans who don't like women,'' Klarides said, "which is very offensive to me on many levels. People just want to keep their jobs, let alone get overtime and wage increases.''

Republicans are also seeking reforms for the Board of Regents for Higher Education, saying that individual colleges should "operate independently for budgeting purposes."

For senior citizens, the Republican plan includes funding for the blind and disabled, preserves respite care programs and restores the personal-needs allowance for those in nursing homes to $60 per month per resident.

Malloy had sought to reduce the allowance to $50 per month, which nursing home residents use for cosmetics, clothing, gifts, phone calls and other personal needs. The federal minimum level is $30 per month, and Connecticut's total has been reduced from a high of $69 per month in the 2010 fiscal year under Republican Gov. M. Jodi Rell.

The funding increases include reinstating the current level of funding for burials for those who are too poor to afford a funeral, as well as restoring money for the Youth Services Prevention Grant, 47 neighborhood youth centers, and the popular Connecticut Youth Employment Program that has been strongly supported by many Democrats on the appropriations committee.

"This is an extremely challenging budget year, and the Republicans deserve credit for sharing their ideas instead of simply sniping from the sidelines," said House Speaker Brenda Sharkey of Hamden. "Some of the minority's proposed adjustments will be incorporated in the full appropriations committee budget, so I would expect a bipartisan vote, as well."

After the budget-writing and tax-writing committees make their recommendations next week, top lawmakers will craft a final budget compromise with Malloy in an attempt to finish their work before the legislative session ends on June 3.